DOOH Marketing
DOOH Advertising in Durham, NC
Part of Nielsen DMA #22 (Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville) with 1,345,840 TV homes. A live 12-mile plan tight to downtown Durham — not a re-count of the Raleigh metro — reaches 1,240 active digital screens delivering 160.5M monthly impressions across Duke, downtown, and the Durham side of Research Triangle Park.
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DOOH Marketing Platform: Plan, Buy & Measure Digital Out-of-Home Campaigns
Durham and Raleigh are separate cities about 18 miles apart that happen to share one Nielsen DMA[3], so a typical 30-mile metro plan built around one of them just re-counts screens that already belong to the other. This page uses a tight 12-mile radius around downtown Durham instead — narrow enough to surface Durham's own inventory: Duke University, downtown, and the Durham side of Research Triangle Park, without double-counting Raleigh's screens.
That's the same precision behind digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising generally: a message on the screens already built into daily life — gas-pump displays, office lobbies, grocery aisles, bars, and apartment-building lobbies — reaching people wherever they actually are instead of a browser tab they can close. Goldfish Ads plans, buys, and measures that inventory across 100+ US markets and 35+ venue types. Run it yourself in the self-serve platform and launch in under 24 hours, or hand the whole thing to our team to manage.
Plan
Search real inventory by market, venue type, and audience, then build a media plan in seconds.
Buy
Activate programmatically across every screen — run it yourself or let our team manage it, with no insertion-order back-and-forth.
Measure
Foot-traffic attribution, website lift, and brand studies close the loop on every campaign.
Here's exactly what's bookable across that tight Durham-only footprint right now.
Why Durham Matters
Duke University and Duke Health together are the region's largest employer, with 43,108 combined campus and health-system employees and 17,499 enrolled students[5] — both based directly in the city, in a Durham of 283,506 residents[2]. Blue Cross NC runs a major operations center here alongside Fayetteville and Winston-Salem[6]. Just southeast of the city, Research Triangle Park sits mostly within Durham County — 300+ companies employing 55,000 workers plus 10,000 contractors, anchored by large IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, and Cisco campuses, though none of the three is headquartered there[7].
The city's layered history still shapes where people gather today: the American Tobacco Historic District's redeveloped warehouses now anchor downtown[13], while Hayti — once home to more than 200 Black-owned businesses and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company[14] — is reconnecting to that same downtown core after decades of urban-renewal disruption.
On an ordinary weekday, 62.2% of Durham workers drive alone with a mean commute of 22.3 minutes[4], while the American Dance Festival's six summer weeks at Duke[8] and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival's spring run at the Carolina Theatre[9] each concentrate an extra wave of downtown and campus foot traffic on the calendar.
Live Screen Map
Every dot is a bookable digital screen in the live 12-mile Durham plan[1]. Pan, zoom, and click any marker for venue type and impressions, or use the filter to isolate a single format. Pulled directly from the Goldfish API — no static screenshot.
See the Actual Boards
Real Google Street View of the roadside screens in the Durham plan[1] — the same corners you drive past on I-85, the Durham Freeway, and US-15-501. Drag inside any panel to look around the intersection. Imagery is Google Street View; screens are live and bookable.
Inventory by Venue Type
Pulled live from the saved 12-mile Durham plan on 2026-07-05[1], with every screen counted once. The plan carries 1,240 active digital screens delivering 160,459,657 monthly impressions in this tight Durham-only footprint.
| Venue Type | Screens | Monthly Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment Buildings | 237 | 19,798,644 |
| Gas Stations | 184 | 3,048,180 |
| Sports Venues | 119 | 13,218,747 |
| Grocery | 101 | 12,342,278 |
| Office Buildings | 94 | 7,021,105 |
| Movie Theaters | 91 | 3,675,340 |
| Rideshare / Taxi TV | 79 | 91,015 |
| Convenience Stores | 64 | 3,861,928 |
| Doctor Offices | 62 | 1,003,382 |
| Casual Dining | 61 | 40,094,789 |
| Airports | 32 | 32,435,511 |
| Bars | 23 | 5,307,099 |
| QSR | 19 | 2,903,008 |
| Gyms | 17 | 3,347,829 |
| Pharmacies | 13 | 773,300 |
| Colleges | 12 | 134,062 |
| Recreational | 9 | 3,379,259 |
| Other venue types | 23 | 8,024,181 |
| Total | 1,240 | 160,459,657 |
Venue types are mutually exclusive and sum to the plan total. Figures reflect the 12-mile radius around downtown Durham within the shared 1,345,840-home Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville DMA.
Durham Billboard Sizes & Creative Formats
These are the actual screen sizes running in the live Durham plan[1], counted as unique screens. You don't build a file per screen — you build one creative per aspect ratio and export it to each resolution. The market is mostly 16:9 landscape, with a block of 9:16 portrait for apartment-lobby, gas-pump, and elevator screens.
| Resolution (px) | Aspect | Orientation | Screens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920×1080 | 16:9 | Landscape | 1,058 |
| 1080×1920 | 9:16 | Portrait | 38 |
| 1280×720 | 16:9 | Landscape | 8 |
| 720×1280 | 9:16 | Portrait | 5 |
| 728×90 | 364:45 | Landscape | 4 |
| 300×250 | 6:5 | Landscape | 3 |
1,007 screens
Accept full-motion video (typically 10 or 15 seconds, silent).
961 screens
Accept a static image — a single high-res JPG or PNG runs everywhere.
494 screens
Support audio, concentrated in gas-station and point-of-care venues.
Listed formats cover 1,116 of the 1,240 screens; the balance run small banner units or publisher-defined sizes. Ship a 16:9 and a 9:16 master and you cover nearly the entire market.
How Much Does DOOH Cost in Durham?
You don't need a national media budget or an agency contract to put a message in front of Durham. Campaigns start for as little as $50 a day, with no long-term commitment attached — launch, pause, and adjust on your own schedule.
Every screen in the plan sells at one flat, transparent CPM (cost per thousand impressions): an apartment-lobby screen near Duke, an office building on the Blue Cross NC commute, or a bar downtown, all the same price. A bigger budget simply buys more impressions across the footprint, never access to a different tier of inventory. Scale up around Full Frame or American Dance Festival weeks, and scale back down whenever you want.
Start at $50/day
Enough to put a real message on Durham screens — test the market before you scale.
No commitment
No annual contract, no minimum term. Run a single week or run all year.
One flat CPM
Every venue type priced the same — your budget buys impressions, not access tiers.
Ready to put your brand on Durham screens?
Live on Durham screens in under 24 hours. Run it yourself or let our team handle it. No rate card, no long-term commitment.
Screens Near the Places You Know
The same 1,240 screens, zoomed in on the Durham landmarks you actually drive past. Each map shows the bookable digital screens within 1.5 miles of the spot[1] — the Bulls' ballpark downtown, DPAC, Duke Chapel's 210-foot tower[15], Sarah P. Duke Gardens' 55 acres[17], the Museum of Life and Science's 84-acre campus[16], and out to the Research Triangle Park corridor.
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Target Screens Along Any Route, Not Just a Radius
A radius treats every screen inside the circle the same. A route is different: hand us a real drive — a highway, a daily commute, a delivery loop — and Goldfish traces it with the Mapbox routing engine[18], then geofences every bookable screen within reach of that exact path, end to end.
Durham's road grid gives three obvious candidates: I-85 feeding into downtown from the northeast; the Durham Freeway (NC-147, now partly re-numbered I-885) connecting Research Triangle Park to downtown and Duke; and US-15-501 running in from Chapel Hill. Pick one to see the screens hugging it and the venue mix along the whole corridor — every dot is a live, bookable screen from the same 12-mile plan[1].
0 bookable screens sit within 0.75 miles of I-85 Northeast-Southwest Spine (Hillsborough, NC → Durham, NC, 14.2 route miles). The mix along this corridor:
Corridor screens are filtered live from the 12-mile Durham plan [1] against Mapbox driving geometry [18], counting each screen within the listed buffer of the route.
Screen Formats Active in Durham
Real photos of the screen formats running in the Durham plan[1], ranked by how many screens of each are bookable here. Each format is matched to the venue types actually booking in the market — representative venue photography, not location-specific shots.
Neighborhoods & Trade Areas
Downtown & American Tobacco Historic District[13]
The former American Tobacco Company manufacturing complex — 14 contributing buildings and 14.58 acres of redeveloped tobacco warehouses now anchoring downtown's office, dining, and entertainment core, listed on the National Register in 2000.
Trinity Park[12]
751-building historic residential district next to Duke's East Campus, first listed on the National Register in 1986 — walkable, tree-lined, and packed with Queen Anne and Craftsman homes close to Ninth Street's shops and restaurants.
Hayti[14]
The historic center of Durham's Black business community, home to more than 200 Black-owned businesses and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company by the early 1900s — a legacy trade area reconnecting to downtown after 1950s urban-renewal displacement.
Duke University & Duke Health corridor[5]
The campus and hospital district along Erwin Road and Trinity Avenue — the single largest concentration of daily foot traffic in the plan, from students, staff, and patients alike.
Suggested Campaigns for This Market
Student & young-professional reach
Apartment-building, movie-theater, and casual-dining screens across the plan's single largest venue category — the highest-density format around Duke and downtown Durham.
Build this plan →
Research Triangle & hospital workforce reach
Office-building, doctor-office, and grocery screens geofenced to the Duke Health, Blue Cross NC, and Research Triangle Park commute pattern.
Build this plan →
Festival & downtown-event surround
Downtown bar, casual-dining, and gas-station screens concentrated for American Dance Festival and Full Frame Documentary Film Festival weeks.
Build this plan →
Sports & Entertainment Footprints
Durham Bulls Athletic Park[10]
10,000-seat ballpark, home of the Triple-A Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays affiliate) since expanding for Triple-A play in 1998.
Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC)[11]
2,712-seat venue that opened in 2008 and has grown into the largest performing-arts venue in the Carolinas, hosting 200+ shows a year.
What DOOH Delivers
Results from real DOOH campaigns run on the same venue types and audience tactics you can book in Durham. Different brands and markets — same platform, same playbook.
$36.83
Return on Ad Spend
Healthcare — OTC Medication
Read case study →
+51%
Awareness Lift
Education — Higher Education
Read case study →
+53%
Decision-Maker Reach
Venue Types: Office Buildings
Read case study →
Frequently Asked Questions About Durham DOOH
What is DOOH advertising?
Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is advertising on the digital screens you pass in the real world — highway billboards, gas-pump screens, gyms, grocery aisles, bars, and office lobbies. It is a format viewers cannot skip, block, or mute, and it reaches people while they are out living their day.
How much does DOOH advertising cost in Durham?
Durham DOOH campaigns start for as little as $50 a day with no long-term commitment. Every screen is sold at one flat, transparent CPM (cost per thousand impressions) — the same rate across every venue type — so a larger budget simply earns more impressions across the metro rather than access to different inventory.
What types of screens can I book in Durham?
The live 12-mile Durham plan carries 1,240 active digital screens across venue types including apartment buildings, gas stations, sports venues, grocery, office buildings, movie theaters, and casual dining.
How many people can a Durham DOOH campaign reach?
The current Durham plan delivers roughly 160.5 million monthly impressions in a tight 12-mile radius around downtown, part of Nielsen DMA #22 (Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville) with 1,345,840 TV homes.
Why a 12-mile plan instead of a wider Durham-Raleigh radius?
Durham and Raleigh are separate cities about 18 miles apart that share one Nielsen DMA. A tight 12-mile radius around downtown Durham surfaces the screens that are actually Durham's own — Duke, downtown, and the Durham side of Research Triangle Park — instead of re-counting inventory that already belongs to a Raleigh-centered plan.
How fast can a Durham DOOH campaign launch?
Campaigns launch in under 24 hours — plan, buy, and go live the same day, instead of the weeks that traditional out-of-home buying takes. Run it yourself in the Goldfish Ads platform, or have our team plan and manage it for you.
Nearby North Carolina Markets
Plan a Durham Campaign
Sources
- [1] Goldfish DOOH Planning API — live saved plan (code a1d0tl4sPLo), 12-mile radius around downtown Durham, resold programmatic inventory excluded so each screen is counted once, pulled 2026-07-05
- [2] Wikipedia — Durham, North Carolina (2020 U.S. Census population 283,506; Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area 608,879 residents)
- [3] ustvdb.com — 2024-25 Nielsen DMA rankings (Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, NC #22, 1,345,840 TV homes — verified via direct raw fetch, not summarized)
- [4] Data USA — Durham, NC (U.S. Census ACS commute data: drove alone 62.2%, worked from home 23.3%, carpooled 8.25%, mean commute 22.3 minutes)
- [5] Wikipedia — Duke University (infobox: total enrollment 17,499 fall 2024; 43,108 total campus & health system employees, July 2021)
- [6] Blue Cross NC Media Center — "Overview" (major operations centers in Durham, Fayetteville, Winston-Salem, and an office in Charlotte; employs more than 4,700 North Carolinians; not-for-profit since 1933)
- [7] Wikipedia — Research Triangle Park (7,000 acres, sitting mostly within Durham County; more than 300 companies employing 55,000 workers plus 10,000 contractors; IBM four-building, 774,000-sq-ft complex; GlaxoSmithKline R&D center with about 5,000 employees; Cisco Systems campus with about 5,000 employees, its second-largest location after Silicon Valley)
- [8] Wikipedia — American Dance Festival (moved to Duke University, Durham in 1978; six-week summer festival; over 640 world premieres since its 1934 founding)
- [9] Wikipedia — Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (founded 1998 by Nancy Buirski; held at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham; grown from a few hundred patrons)
- [10] Wikipedia — Durham Bulls Athletic Park (10,000-seat ballpark, opened April 6, 1995, expanded to Triple-A capacity in 1998; home of the Durham Bulls, Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays)
- [11] Wikipedia — Durham Performing Arts Center (2,712 seats; opened November 30, 2008; largest performing-arts venue in the Carolinas; hosts 200+ performances annually)
- [12] Wikipedia — Trinity Historic District (751 contributing buildings; listed on the National Register of Historic Places March 26, 1986, with boundary increases in 2004 and 2008; near Duke University's East Campus)
- [13] Wikipedia — American Tobacco Historic District (14.58-acre former American Tobacco Company manufacturing complex; 14 contributing buildings and 3 contributing structures; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000)
- [14] Wikipedia — Hayti, Durham, North Carolina (historic African American business district; more than 200 Black-owned businesses by the early 20th century; home of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, founded 1898; largely displaced by 1950s urban renewal and NC Highway 147 construction)
- [15] Wikipedia — Duke Chapel (210-foot bell tower, one of the tallest university chapels in the world; seats approximately 1,800; completed 1935; Collegiate Gothic style designed by Julian Abele)
- [16] Wikipedia — Museum of Life and Science (84-acre science museum in Durham; founded 1946; Magic Wings Butterfly House opened 1999)
- [17] Wikipedia — Sarah P. Duke Gardens (approximately 55 acres of landscaped and wooded gardens with 5 miles of allées, walks, and pathways; gardens began in 1934)
- [18] Mapbox Directions API — driving route geometry for the I-85, NC-147/I-885, and US-15-501 corridors, pulled 2026-07-05
Get Your Ad on Durham Screens
Every screen in the Durham market, one place to launch it. Run it yourself or let our team handle it — live in under 24 hours.
Get Your Ad on Durham ScreensMore for Durham planners
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